


Michigan Midsommer

by EnsignDisaster



Category: Good Girls (TV), Midsommar (2019)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Cults, F/M, Gen, Horror, Recreational Drug Use, nothing too graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-01-26 08:47:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21371380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnsignDisaster/pseuds/EnsignDisaster
Summary: Post Season 2 Rio goes to Beth to torment her because it's his favorite pastime. Instead he finds her and her girls celebrating an ancient tradition.Minor Spoilers for the movie Midsommer so highly recommend watching the movies but you don't need to. It's also just a really great movie.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Comments: 5
Kudos: 38





	Michigan Midsommer

Things were just going a bit too smoothly.

It’s mid day on the hottest day of the summer and Rio has nothing to do. The shipment of drugs from Canada had come down easily, his workers were taking a small break from packing them into stuffed animals which would then be distributed throughout Michigan. Most of the ground work on his next business venture was finished. Paperwork was complete, the correct weasels had been threatened, some choice palms had been greased, so there was nothing to do but wait and sweat-literally.

Even Demon and Bullet looked bored by how content everything was going. Probably wishing it was a bit like the old days where climbing the ladder meant getting into a few shoot outs or roughing a few people up. Now he’s so high up, he has to let others(more minor people) handle the dirty work. He sees the thermometer on the wall go up a few more degrees and figures that the cities criminals have all collectively decided that it’s just too hot to kill each other today.

Speaking of trying to kill him, Rio wonders what Elizabeth and her girls are up to. It’s been a few months since he’d come back from the dead and into their would be criminal enterprise, some cookie or cupcake delivery shit that’d he’d demanded sixty percent of. All the while he’d threatened to put a bullet in each of them for the three Elizabeth had put in him as they clutched each other crying. Even though they’d made their payments on time and the money was good, he couldn't lie still felt satisfying to stop by and torment them every now and then.

“Headin’ out...do not disturb unless the feds show up.” He says quickly gathering up his phone and keys before leaving. He doesn’t miss the raised eyebrows from both Demon and Bullet because they obviously knew where he's going but had wisely learned long ago to keep their mouths shut.

Once outside he’s hit with a wall of heat and it takes a moment to adjust. Michigan winters can be absolutely brutal with mild summers but it’s been an odd couple of days with this heat wave. Dag’s who watches way too many documentaries goes on tangents about global warming, Rio for his part is beginning to rethink his whole aesthetic of dark jeans and even darker button ups.

It’s a relief when he climbs into the air conditioned Cadillac and makes the relatively short fifteen minute drive to Elizabeth’s house, he’s convinced himself that he needs to keep her and her girls on an extremely short lease.

It’s when he parks on the street and goes around back that he’s met with a truly unexpected sight.

The little sister and best friend are both in the backyard and he has to rack his brain to remember their names. They’ve always just sort of been in the background for him, behind Elizabeth either cowering from him or following her lead. The one job he does assign them, picking up his supply from up north without her they royally fuck up so in the end he makes it known without Elizabeth they get nothing.

Except this time they don’t cower from Rio in fact they barely even acknowledge him.

The short blonde one...Annie is swaying and moving slowly around the large tree that holds the kids treehouse humming some off kilter tune. Her face turned to the sun and a ring of white daisies in her hair, she looks content and doesn’t even notice as he passes right by her.

Ruby, the one with a cop husband or maybe former cop, is sitting at the wooden bench on the deck fiddling with something in her hands. As he gets closer he sees that it’s another ring of flowers this time deep purple tulips and as she closes the final loop and places it on her head she turns to him. Even the dog who gives him a welcoming sniff has a few daffodils tucked into his collar.

“Oh Gangfriend! What a pleasant surprise!” A wide smile spreads across her face as she looks up at him. “I can make you one too if you want...maybe something masculine like ivy leaves or sharp thorns.”

Her dark eyes travel up to his forehead examining it closely but she keeps the same wide grin on her face. It’s a tad unnerving because this woman, who has never even been remotely happy to see him is now all chummy and the annoying sister who never shuts up is off in the corner minding her own business. He notes that both are wearing white cotton dresses almost tunic like with subtle but intricate designs sewn into the collars and sleeves.

“Nah I’m good, where’s Elizabeth at?” She huffs in disappointment before nodding to the open french doors behind her.

“She wants to rest a bit before we start dancing later.” Ruby explains before getting up and joining Annie by the tree who yells with joy when she notices Ruby approach.

Rio slips silently into the master bedroom to hopefully get some answers to what’s going on. 

The only light in the room comes from the afternoon sun and he sees her laying on her side facing the backyard, the bed mostly in the shadows. He almost assumes she’s asleep until one eyelid opens and her blue bambi eye zeros in on his lean frame in the doorway.

Since he’d come back Elizabeth Boland has expressed a total of three emotions every time they’d interacted. In the beginning mostly fear probably expecting a bullet between the eyes at any moment, then great and tremendous guilt that forced her to flee if they were in the same room for longer than a few minutes together, and finally anger whenever he ruled over her in the “running of her business” as she put it.

Now as she sits up on her elbow it becomes easier to make her out. A crown of pink roses intertwined in her strawberry hair that contrasts beautifully with her pale skin wearing same light dress as her sister and best friend with blue thread designs stitched in hugging her curves. Rio wonders if she handmade all three outfits herself since they fit so well.

What surprises him the most is dreamy smile she graces him with, not nearly as wide as Ruby’s but no less joyful her rose tinted lips look soft and inviting.

“I dreamed of you.” Her voice is low and sleepy and as she settles back down she reaches an arm across to pat the empty space beside her.

He should argue, demand that she get the hell up, and that she and her girls need to snap out of it. They’re wasting their time getting high and shit when they should be moving product and if they’re not making money, he’s not making money. 

But Rio knows a losing battle when he sees one and toes off his jordans and lays on top of the duvet mirroring her position.

“What’s goin’ on ma, why you like this?”

“Distant relatives in Sweden sent some tea...it's a tradition for us every summer.” Her eyes flick from his face to the wall behind him then back, her pupils so overblown there’s just a sliver of blue. “There’s more in the kitchen if you want some.”

“Maybe later...tell me about your dream.” He shifts closer and can smell the roses in her hair mixing with her own natural scent. “Was it about the last time we were in this bed?”

She giggles slightly at his teasing and he can’t help matching her smile, it’s strange to be in this room with her like the outside world doesn’t matter, maybe if he drinks that tea their complicated past won’t matter either. It’s tempting but not as tempting as watching this Elizabeth Boland in front of him so carefree and relaxed.

“No...well maybe at first and then I dreamt about the night I shot you.”

She says it so nonchalantly that he almost falls off the bed. She laughs even harder as he edges away from her and she only moves closer into his space mumbling that she promises she won’t do it again.

Finally he settles back down and that tea is once again so tempting because maybe then he’ll see the funny side of getting shot three times, going through major emergency surgery, having to suck up to fuckin’ Turner, and deal with the emotional fallout of her betrayl that he has to act like doesn’t bother him while getting his empire back on track. Turn the months of hell into one big laugh.

“Shooting you reminded me of a memory from my childhood.” Her shaky voice snaps him back to the present and he sees her lift a single delicate hand to just hover over the points on his chest, his once smooth tan skin now marked with angry scars.

He doesn’t want to speak so instead moves to grip her hip, still as soft as he remembers, and naturally her leg curls over his.

“The summer before my dad left he took me and Annie to visit his family, distant cousins in Sweden, they lived in this remote village very isolated but so beautiful.” Elizabeth closes her eyes and he can practically see her imagining it her dark lashes fluttering. Wide open blue skies, fresh green mountains topped with the last of the snowy winter caps is what he conjures up.

“Annie had fun playing with all the kids and I learned new sewing and baking techniques from the women. It was so different from Detroit...I never thought air could smell so sweet.”

“Damn ma you’re making it seem a hell of a lot better than Legoland.” He tugs a pink petal from her rose crown and traces it down her cheek. “Still don’t get what that has to do with putting three bullets in me though?”

“We’re there a few days...I’m not sure how long cause time seemed to blend together, the sun was always shining even at midnight. They tell me that their going to perform an ancient ritual but Annie can’t come because she’s too young. Daddy is angry but he doesn’t argue too much.” She whispers the last part and her bambi eyes glaze over like lost in a memory. Rio snaps his fingers once and she’s back.

“We ate and there were two old people, one man and one woman, at the head of the table, the guests of honor I think. After dinner they were carried up a mountain and everyone else, the whole village, stood at the bottom of a ravine….it was so silent you could hear a pin drop.”

Her hand which only a moment ago seemed so hesitant to touch him is now gripping his bicep on the borderline of pain, neat manicured fingernails digging in deeper. “I thought they were going to sing o-or give a speech but they...they…”

“What’d they do Elizabeth?” He asks even though he’s uncertain if he wants an answer especially with how frightened she is when she looks up into his face bouncing from his lips to his cheekbones to his chin before finally meeting his eyes.

“They fell-no they jumped. First the man and then the woman...down onto the rocks below. It was almost a blink and you’ll miss it kind of thing at least with the old man.” Her grip loosens on his arm settling back in the small space between them. “He burst open in so many violent shades of red. I heard the sound of his body hitting the ground and then he just didn’t even look human anymore.”

Rio isn’t sure how to respond because sure he hadn’t expected the three ladies to be high as balls when he’d shown up or Elizabeth to be in such a good mood(albeit altered) to see him. He’s not sure how to react to the revelation of some childhood trauma if it’s even real, it genuinely sounds like something out of a scary story. She keeps going and he doesn’t know how he’d stop her if he even wanted to.

“The woman was so much worse. Something was off when she fell like maybe she panic’d or I-I don’t know.” Elizabeth takes a few deep inhales bunching the bedspread under her fingers. “When she landed on the rock below it was on her back, her spine snapped in half, I can still hear the sound of it. Everything below her stomach was just utterly destroyed...but she was still alive.”

“Ma…” He mumbles enclosing her hand in his, one or two tears escape her eyes and fall onto the pillow.

“She didn’t scream or anything...I think her lungs must have been totally crushed but she made soft wet whimpering noises like a newborn puppy would. Both her blood and the mans pooled underneath her making the bones piercing through from her skin even brighter.”

She squeezes his hand once...twice.

“It must have been only a few seconds after she fell that the screaming started.” Elizabethis shivering now like the summer heat can’t penetrate the cold in her bones. “They all screamed and cried, throwing themselves on the ground and begging loudly. So many tears and yet no one rushed to help her…only a small group of them approached with a giant hammer.”

She sits up now to rest against her headboard but keeps a tight hold of his hand placing it in her lap. Wet stands of her hairs stick to her cheek and neck from being trapped against the bed.

“I ran away before I could watch them pound her skull into the rock. For years afterward, I tried to forget or pretend it was a horrible dream and I almost succeeded.” Elizabeth looks down at him as if trying to memorize his features and it feels exactly like that afternoon in this very bedroom way back when. His free hand comes up and brushes her hair off her face and she leans into his touch. 

“The night I shot you. I was back in that ravine and I finally understood.”

He sits up now and for the first time with her, he wants to be the one to run away. To not have to face this problem between them or at least not listen to her reasoning behind trying to kill him. But it’s as if he’s rooted to the bed with only her hand keeping his body tethered to earth.

“The first shot I was just terrified and even the second when you came at me was more instinct than anything but the third…” She moves his palm to the middle of her chest, right between the breasts he’d worshiped so long ago, to feel her heartbeat faint and fluttering like a hummingbird. 

“The third time just a split second before it I felt the burning pain. The hot metal entering your chest must have been too unbearable for words, I wanted to scream and cry out to somehow end the agony you were in. So I did what my ancestors have done in that ravine for thousands of years only with a gun in place of a hammer.”

For a long while they just stare at each other, neither one of them moving or looking anywhere but eachothers eyes. It’s the most honest Elizabeth’s ever been with him and given his track record of blowing off her questions or ignoring her fears, he’s not entirely blameless in this situation they’ve found themselves in.

“But you still did it.” His voice feels rough like he hasn’t spoken in ages.

“Yeah...I did.” She leans forward and presses a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth and his eyelids close feeling like he could sleep for a hundred years with how emotionally taxing this conversation has been.

  
  


“You should get up, we want to start dancing soon.” 

The question is a shock to the brain and they both turn to see Annie at the end of the bed swaying from side to side with Ruby just a few feet behind her clutching a crown of oak leaves, no doubt intended for him even though he’d turned down her offer. Rio notices a drinking glass in Annie’s hand.

Elizabeth perks up at this and sit up on her knees quickly taking the glass from her sister. It’s like all the seriousness of the situation has evaporated and she’s joyful once more, turning that beaming happiness onto Rio. “You should come join us!”

It’d be easy to refuse, to leave and come back when shes sober, to each pretend this afternoon had never happened. 

He takes the tea and drinks the entire thing barely tasting the earthy almost medicine nature of it.

Once he downs it Elizabeth practically drags him outside after her sister and best friend into the late afternoon just on the cusp of early evening. Fireflies dot the bushes with their lights, the heat of the day doesn't feel so oppressive, and Elizabeth keeps herself pressed up against him.

For the first time in a long time as the leaves, grass, and flowers swirl and flutter around him. Rio smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to come out around Halloween but I'am nothing if not lazy. I really don't know why I mixed these two very different thing together...I just did. Again this is a mystery of Beth's past fic that for some reason I find myself writing and I definitely don't consider this canon. I feel like this is more an exercise in how many genres I can stick there two characters in.
> 
> Kudos, comment, and share. Thanks


End file.
